Mayhem Is Erupting Again In Ferguson As Police And Protesters Clash

Published 9:20 pm, Sunday, August 17, 2014

The National Guard has been called to Ferguson, Missouri, where protests have escalated over the past two days after a midnight curfew was imposed by Gov. Jay Nixon.

The St. Louis suburb has been the site of racially charged protests since the Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Clashes between protesters and police had calmed as the week progressed but have ramped up again over the weekend.

Nixon imposed the curfew on Saturday at a rowdy press conference during which Capt. Ron Johnson tried to assuage fears that police would use force to enforce it.

LATEST BUSINESS VIDEOS

President Trump Just Killed Broadcom’s Proposed Takeover of QualcommFortune

Cats Ride Robotic Stuffed CrabJukin Media

Amazon's Alexa is Creepily Laughing and It's Scary as HellWibbitz

An Emirates Flight Attendant Dies After Falling Off PlaneVeuer

Toys 'R' Us to Close or Sell All U.S. StoresWibbitz

Fearless Girl artist reflectsFox5

Shelter Dogs Love Donated Chairs That Make Them Feel At HomeBuzz 60

Twitter Exploring Ways to Verify All UsersWibbitz

Here's the Scariest New Tech of 2018 So FarBuzz 60

"We won't enforce it with trucks, with tear gas. We will communicate ... Because someone is standing in the street, there is not going to be an armored truck come out," he said.

Despite these assurances, there were numerous reports of police firing tear gas into crowds marching toward a police command center on Sunday night, hours before the curfew was set to be imposed. St. Louis County police said Molotov cocktails were being thrown at police.

"It really is just pure chaos down here," Brian Schellman, a St. Louis County Police spokesman, told KSDK News.

Many protesters disputed the police account that Molotov cocktails had been thrown at the police.

"That is a lie. It was no fight — it was no shots fired," protester Lisha Williams told CNN. "The only ones who fired was police. All we did was march to the command center to fall to our knees and say, 'Don't shoot.' And they started shooting."

The clashes came on the same night The New York Times released the results of a private autopsy report conducted on behalf of Brown's family. According to the report, Brown was shot six times in the fatal incident, including twice in his head. The bullets that entered his body did not appear to have been fired from very close range, according to the report.

An autopsy conducted by local officials had still not been completed. Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday that the Justice Department would conduct its own autopsy because of what spokesman Brian Fallon said was "due to the extraordinary circumstances involved in this case and at the request of the Brown family."

Police also clashed with members of the press. One journalist from Argus Radio captured video of a person he identified as a police officer telling him to "get the f--- out of here ... or you're getting shelled with this."